Rock 'n' Roll Rebel

July 18, 2016
Alabama middle schooler Tig Ripley wants to start an all-girl band, Pandora’s Box, to prove her classmate Will Mason wrong when he says, “Girl bands are gimmicks.” Tig enlists cousin Kyra on bass, tennis champ Olivia on keyboard, rocker Robbie on guitar, and herself on drums. When Kyra invites popular Haley to be the lead singer, the group is astounded by her terrible voice and inflated ego. Dumping Haley creates hostility between the band and the school’s “Bot” clique. Even with a new singer, the band’s fears over Bot name-calling and retaliation leads to some cringe-worthy performances and Tig’s failing grades. Tig searches for a way to save the band and end the Bot war, all while coming to terms with Will’s romantic interest in her. Rue’s (Jump) conventional plot leaves little room for surprise, and some of the idioms used by the band members (“My name is going to be mud”; “The walls have ears”) sound wooden and antiquated. Still, Rue’s thematic focus on bullying is timely and nuanced. Ages 9–up. Agent: Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary.

July 1, 2016
Determined to prove that girls can play the drums, Tig forms an all-girl rock band.When a male classmate declares that a girl drummer doesn't have the ability to lead a band, 13-year-old Antigone, or Tig, begins taking drum lessons. In her quest to disprove her classmate, Tig, a white girl with frizzy, brown hair, searches for the perfect band mates. After disastrous open auditions, she and her cousin privately recruit additional band members, including popular white girl Haley as their lead singer. Predictably, Haley does not take direction well and is asked to leave the band. In retribution for this slight, Haley and her girlfriends try to lure Tig's new lead singer away from her band. The popular girls sabotage the band's failed debut performance and upload the fiasco online. Mortified, Tig must re-evaluate her motives for learning the drums and try to keep her band from falling apart. Rue effortlessly captures Tig's passion for her drums, but her other characters seem to exist only to propel Tig's internal transformation. Some character portrayals are culturally insensitive, including a redheaded fair-skinned girl who raps and speaks in African-American street slang. Chinese-American Robbie, the only significant character of color (troubling itself in this Tuscaloosa-set novel), is called a racial slur to illustrate bullying, but there is no further acknowledgement or discussion of the slur outside the occurrence. An unsuccessful attempt to inspire girls to rebel against conformity. (Fiction. 9-12)

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June 1, 2016

Gr 4-6-This novel chronicles Tig Ripley's quest to start an all-girl rock band named Pandora's Box. The 13-year-old protagonist does not play an instrument, and she's been brought up with Southern good manners. In spite of these obstacles, Tig wants to be the band's drummer and leader. The narrative is slow to start as Rue establishes the band members' recruitment and skill set, but once the band forms, the book's pace picks up and readers are drawn into a story that has plenty of girl drama and social angst but very little actual rebellion. The message of finding individuality in middle school is a positive one, and Tig is a flawed but likable narrator. VERDICT For fans who are ready to graduate from Megan McDonald's "Judy Moody" and Charise Mericle Harper's "Just Grace" but aren't quite ready for YA fiction.-Sarah Wilsman, Bainbridge Library, Chagrin Falls, OH

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
Grades 4-7 When Antigone Tig Ripley's frenemy Will makes the ridiculous pronouncement that girls are too snarky and jealous to be in a band together ( Girl bands are gimmicks. They don't work. ), she considers the gauntlet thrown down. With the help of her grandfathera former 1960s rockerTig takes up the drums and invites a few other middle-school girls to join her band, Pandora's Box. The girls' abilities vary widely, and their personalities are even more diverse, which means that making music as a band requires lots of practicing and working through challenges, heckling, and disappointments. Rue examines the benefits of hard work, the delight of pursuing your dreams, and the real meaning of friendship in this uniquely quirky story that will draw in even the most reluctant (and least musical) of readers. This effervescent novel captures the essence of both middle schoolthe bullies, the struggles, the temptationsand music. Rue has struck the perfect chord for middle-school readers everywhere in this series starter.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
In the series debut (Rebel), middle schooler Antigone (Tig) Ripley starts an all-girl band and learns what it's like to be a true leader, from confronting a toxic bandmate to handling a disastrous first gig. Tig struggles to hold band Pandora's Box together in book two (Hard Rock). The characters' voices don't always echo modern tween speech, but the timely themes and girl-power vibe are appealing.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)